The present description relates generally to the field of systems and methods for managing procurement and distribution of goods. More particularly, the present description relates to a system and method configured to manage aspects of planning, allocation, and purchasing of goods.
Providers of retail sales articles and services seek to provide the right product, at the right place, at the right time. These articles often have a short life cycle, particularly with regard to sales of retail fashion articles, and new articles have to be presented quite frequently. At the same time, the consumers demand a wide assortment variety for the goods that are presented. Accordingly, large numbers of different fashion articles often have to be planned for, purchased, and allocated among sales locations within extremely short time frames.
Further, tracking inventory and budgets for articles and services can be important to the profitability of a business. For example, identifying a particularly fast selling item and ordering additional quantities to arrive on time and within a prescribed budget may increase the profitability of a retail location. Accordingly, it is important for a business to carefully plan and schedule purchasing orders for retail sales articles and services to ensure on-time procurement or scheduling within budget constraints. Optimizing the smooth flow of the procurement process increases an enterprise's efficiency and competitiveness and determines its success.
Yet further, the goods delivered for these orders may be delivered for all locations and then allocated among the several possible locations to further increase profitability. For example, one location may be experiencing a higher demand for a particular good. Accordingly, more of that good should be allocated to the high demand location.
In view of the foregoing, it would be beneficial to provide system configured to manage planning, purchasing, and allocating aspects of inventory management. It would further be beneficial to provide such a system configured to automatically perform planning, purchasing, and allocating functions within defined limits. It would be further beneficial to provide such a system wherein aspects of automated planning, purchasing, and/or planning are integrated with automated aspects of the others of planning, purchasing, and/or planning.